A Lone Star original, Darrell Royal built an enduring legacy at the University of Texas and in college football by having the right scheme, the proper call or the perfect quip.

The legendary former UT football coach and athletic director died Wednesday. He was 88.

Cause of death was listed as cardiovascular problems, but Royal had suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for several years. His wife, Edith, testified before a joint Texas legislative committee in February on the toll the disease had taken.

Royal posted more wins than any football coach in Texas history. He went 167-47-5 at Texas in 20 seasons from 1957 to 1976, including AP national championships in 1963 and ’69. His 1970 team, which was unbeaten before losing in a Cotton Bowl rematch to Notre Dame, was credited with a regular-season national title by some polls.

Current Texas coach Mack Brown, who made Royal an integral part of the program again when he was hired before the 1998 season, likened him to a second father.

“I lost a wonderful friend, a mentor, a confidant and my hero,” Brown said. “College football lost maybe its best ever and the world lost a great man. I can hardly put in words how much coach Royal means to me and all that he has done for me and my family. I wouldn’t even be at Texas without Coach.

“His counsel and friendship meant a lot to me before I came to Texas, but it’s been my guiding light for my 15 years here.”

A public ceremony is scheduled for noon Tuesday at the Erwin Center in Austin. Royal will buried at the Texas State Cemetery in a private ceremony. The UT Tower was lit orange in Royal’s memory Wednesday.

Brown announced that Texas will run its first play Saturday against Iowa State from Royal’s trademark Wishbone formation in the stadium that bears his name.

The tributes to Royal illustrated that his influence cannot be quantified by wins and losses or the national championships or the 11 Southwest Conference titles.

He became the face of the Texas program, with a profile in the 1960s matched by only a few college coaches, including Alabama’s Bear Bryant and Ohio State’s Woody Hayes. His decision to implement the triple-option Wishbone formation turbocharged the Texas offense and revolutionized college football.

Royal rubbed shoulders with political heavyweights, country music hit makers like Willie Nelson and just plain folks at East Austin hangouts like the Back Door and Joe’s Taco Village.

Under Royal, Texas became a national brand, beating Arkansas in 1969’s “Big Shootout.”

President Richard Nixon attended the game and proclaimed Texas the national champion before any poll could clutter the conversation.

Another former commander in chief, Lyndon Johnson, told Royal in a letter: “You are the finest example of an inspiring and worthy leader that I know.”

Royal was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1983. He never seemed at a loss for words. If he didn’t coin the phrase, he certainly popularized the motto: “Dance with the one that brung ya.” Royal also calculated the equation between preparation and good fortune.

“You’ve got to be in a position for luck to happen,” Royal once said. “Luck doesn’t go around looking for a stumblebum.”

Born in Oklahoma

Royal was born in Hollis, Okla., and soon displayed a natural tenacity in pursuit of football excellence.

His family moved to California’s San Joaquin Valley to escape the Depression-era Dust Bowl. After learning that he wasn’t big enough to play high school varsity football, a determined Royal made other plans in conjunction with his father. With just a small stockpile of clothes and a baseball glove, Royal hitchhiked back to Oklahoma, moved in with his grandmother and joined his high school football team.

He eventually won a state championship. College was put on hold for World War II. While training as a B-24 tail gunner, he met and married his wife, Edith, who survives him. So does a son Mack. Two other children, Marian and David, preceded him in death.

At Oklahoma, Royal enjoyed a remarkable run of success playing for Hall of Fame coach Bud Wilkinson. As a quarterback, defensive back and punter, Royal helped the Sooners to a 36-6-1 record from 1946 to 1949, including an 11-0 mark in ’49.

Royal also impressed his OU coaches with his preparation and work ethic, a preview of his coaching career.

Barely into his 30s, he had already been the head coach at Mississippi State and the University of Washington, along with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League.

Then Texas focused on the former Sooner after a 1-9 season. At 32, Royal became the new coach in Austin in December 1956. The next season, the Longhorns rebounded to a 6-3-1 regular season and a Sugar Bowl bid. Royal would never have a losing season.

Winged-T, Wishbone

Despite a focus on fundamentals, Royal was also credited as an innovator.

He became the first Division I coach to hire an academic counselor, a position euphemistically referred to as a “brain coach” at the time. In 1961, Royal simplified the blocking assignments in the Winged-T formation and eventually claimed his first national title in 1963.

For the Cotton Bowl showdown with Navy and Roger Staubach, Royal noticed that Navy defensive backs crowded the line. He devised a play called “Throwback” that put sophomore Phil Harris in the spotlight. After catching six passes all season, Harris caught three passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns in a 28-6 win.

“This is why he’s a Hall of Fame coach,” Harris said.

Royal’s biggest contribution was his implementation of the Wishbone, which became the dominant offensive formation of the 1970s.

Others had used the option before, in high school and college. Royal took it to the next level when he told offensive coordinator Emory Bellard to work on an offense that guaranteed a lead blocker.

The result was a unique formation, the fullback a step behind the quarterback and flanked by two halfbacks, looking like the chicken part it’s named for. Opponents were overwhelmed by the offense and Texas’ execution.

In 1969, Texas averaged 363 yards rushing en route to a national title and increased that total to 374.5 in 1970. The Longhorns put together a 30-game winning streak, until a Cotton Bowl loss to Notre Dame after the 1970 season. Royal’s biggest victory may have come in the Big Shootout against Arkansas in 1969.

Friendly rivals

Texas and Arkansas had been fussin’ and feudin’ atop the Southwest Conference for most of the decade. Royal and Arkansas coach Frank Broyles were friendly rivals who vacationed together with their wives.

ABC-TV had been prescient enough to request a move of the game from Oct. 18 to Dec. 6, at the very end of the season. The two teams delivered, entering the contest undefeated. In the days when most folks only got a handful of TV channels, Texas-Arkansas was as big as it got.

The Rev. Billy Graham delivered the invocation. President Richard Nixon arrived, national championship plaque in hand. Colonel Sanders was among the celebrities in attendance.

Texas won 15-14 on a late Jim Bertelsen touchdown. The video of Nixon presenting the plaque to Royal has become part of Longhorn lore.

While still successful, Royal struggled in the 1970s against Oklahoma and especially against coach Barry Switzer. Brash and an aggressive recruiter, Switzer got great talent to come to Norman, although some wondered about his methods.

Things came to a head after five straight losses to the Sooners in 1976. Royal accused Switzer and his staff of spying on Texas practices and then was quoted by the AP referring to the Sooners’ coaches as “sorry bastards” on the eve of the showdown at the Cotton Bowl.

Royal was booed as he accompanied President Gerald Ford to the field for the coin toss.

The unsatisfying 6-6 tie would be his final Red River Shootout.

Switzer said he admired Royal and wished he could have forged a friendship. He once suggested that Royal wanted to spend more time listening to “guitar pickers” than recruiting.

“I had a great respect for Darrell,” Switzer said in a phone interview, “yet we had a contentious relationship because of the rivalry and some of the things I shouldn’t have said as a brash young coach.”

Royal retired after the 1976 season but admitted he would have liked to continue were it not for the competitive, increasingly bitter atmosphere that was growing in college athletics. He lost favor with several influential Texas supporters in his later coaching years when he refused to become more aggressive in recruiting, which he believed could lead to NCAA violations.

“I was tired and it was easy to let go,” Royal said. “When a person is forced out it’s different. But when you get your fill and still hang on, I don’t understand it. I got tired answering the same questions, teaching the incoming freshmen the same thing, doing the same thing.

“Then those last few years I made some statements about cheating going on and I was labeled a crybaby or holier than thou. I’d just had enough.”

Royal’s influence went beyond football. From 1962 to January 1980, he served as UT’s athletic director as well. While he wasn’t given the chance to name his successor by UT president Lorene Rogers, he did make significant coaching hires in men’s basketball (Abe Lemons) and swimming (Eddie Reese).

Controversies

Even for all his success, Royal couldn’t escape controversy.

Former Longhorn Gary Shaw wrote a scathing account of his time in the program. Titled Meat on the Hoof, the book sold 350,000 copies after it was published in 1972. Shaw alleged academic improprieties for star players and brutal practice drills designed to run off less-productive recruits.

The book was more of a sensation nationally than in Texas. Shaw, who died in 1999, was portrayed in some media accounts as a malcontent.

“I never heard of any of the drills he talked about in the book,” Royal told The Dallas Morning News in 1990. “And some of our players went on national television and said they didn’t know what he was talking about.”

Royal, like most coaches in the old Southwest Conference, was slow to recruit black players. His 1969 team was the last all-white national champion. Royal had coached black players in the CFL and at the University of Washington. One of the Longhorns’ first black stars was running back Roosevelt Leaks in the 1970s.

“The old stigma was that it was an all-white team,” Leaks recalled in December 2005. “I have a lot of respect for coach Royal. It was a difficult time for me, but it was a difficult time for him, also.

“Yes, you want to win, but it’s all about boosters, and you want to satisfy them. I’m sure a lot of them didn’t want me to start.”

Royal addressed his epitaph in the forword of the 2007 book What It Means to Be a Longhorn.

“People have often asked me how I would like to be remembered, and my answer is pretty simple,” Royal wrote. “I tell them that, on my tombstone, I don’t want it to say that I never made a mistake. I’d like it to say, ‘He meant well.’”

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